


A Warlord's Redemption Song

by TwiceBakedPotato



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Entrapdak, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Life in the Horde (She-Ra), Medical Trauma, Memory Loss, Panic Attacks, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Scorpia (She-Ra) Needs a Hug, Soft Hordak (She-Ra), Somewhat, Tags will change as things are added, Talk of pre-canon events, trigger warnings for
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:53:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28006494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwiceBakedPotato/pseuds/TwiceBakedPotato
Summary: Prime has been defeated, and Hordak has found a sense of inner peace. Now he needs to figure out how to bring peace to Etheria, because while the war against the Galactic Horde may have been short lived, hostilities between kingdoms on Etheria go back many decades.
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra), Perfuma/Scorpia (She-Ra)
Comments: 50
Kudos: 47





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is something I've been working on for a while. It was my NaNoWriMo story and as I edit it, I'm going to post it. It's based on a lot of headcanons. There's a lot of diving into pre-canon times and stuff that is never talked about in the show.
> 
> Anyway, ENJOY!

The prison of Bright Moon was just as absurdly luxurious as Scorpia described it, Hordak realized upon entering the lavish room with Entrapta and the black garnet princess at his flanks along with many guards behind them. For three days, Hordak was a free man—free of Prime, free of leadership, free of everything. He spent every second of it with Entrapta, finding that he did not wish to be anywhere but beside her, the memory that could never be taken from him. She told him everything he had missed, her harrowing journey on Beast Island, how she searched for him in space— _DID I MENTION I WAS IN SPACE, HORDAK! FOR DAYS! IN A SHIP! IN **SPACE!**_

It was the closest to paradise he could imagine, despite the rest of the Etherians believing that to be what bloomed in the greenery around them brought forth by She-Ra. He held on to every single moment of it, tried to burn it into his memory core. The way Entrapta’s eyes sparkled as she talked about her dearest Darla, the way the sunlight turned her skin golden when she fell asleep talking against his chest during the sunrise, how soft her hair felt against his lips and fingertips.

Hordak knew this day would come. She-Ra purged him of Prime’s consciousness, but regardless of whatever understanding he and Adora may have, there were many who were not so forgiving.

“The bed is pretty comfortable,” Scorpia said as she pointed to the monstrosity of pillows and fluff. “I know it isn’t exactly what we’re used to back home, but if you take enough of the pillows away, it does become kind of, sort of comfortable. Half the time I slept on the floor. Easier on my tail.”

Entrapta eyed the pillows and then said, “I’ve only ever slept with you in a tent—” He glared; Scorpia giggled. Entrapta continued, “How did you sleep back in the Fright Zone?”

“I had a custom made bed to accommodate my larger frame that was made of standard issue materials,” Hordak answered, his ears twitching. It was nothing that Scorpia did not know since they had many meetings there concerning her eventual transition to power. It was just strange to discuss his personal matters so frankly in front of another person. “I do tend to use some pillows to help relax my joints, though I don’t know how necessary it will be now.”

Scorpia looked him over and said, “This may be the first time I’ve ever seen you without your armor. I mean _your_ armor.”

Hordak had removed the white and black cassock of Prime, and Entrapta had replaced it with a robe she found… somewhere. The source of it was never really explained, just that she happened to have a black robe and it was his to wear along with the black body suit the clones wore. He may still have white hair and green eyes and teeth, but Hordak was again himself. Eventually, he was certain the rest would restore itself. Though, he did truly miss the armor. Not because he needed it at this very moment, but because Entrapta made it for him.

“The armor was destroyed by Prime,” Hordak said in a voice that cracked in a way he did not expect towards the end of the sentence.

Entrapta chimed in with, “But he still has the crystal that powered it! And that means I can always make another suit—of course, if the time comes that you need it.”

Hordak grimaced, but nodded. Prime’s reconditioning had some positive effects on his physical body. Bones and joints that had been shattered when he crashed and replaced using Etherian methods had been repaired using nano surgery. His atrophied muscles had been brought back to life. His somewhat dodgy organ replacements had been fixed—though he didn’t want to think too hard about the donors. Still, he did not trust it at all. And he missed his armor. He missed the feeling it gave him to be wrapped up secure in Entrapta’s greatest work.

“The time will come,” he said with a soft smile. Then he cleared his throat and asked, “What will the two of you do while I am locked inside this so-called prison?”

“Well, first off,” Scorpia started with a smile that quickly fell away as she said, “we’re supposed to be meeting with the rest of the Princess Alliance to discuss a time and date concerning your trial.”

“I suspect that a trial will be pointless,” Hordak grumbled. “It is unlikely they will care to hear a defense of any sort, especially from me.”

Scorpia shrugged. “They’re wanting to try you for the crimes committed by the Horde, Hordak. And, I mean, I guess some may think that’s fair, but I don’t.” She waved a pincher towards the door and said, “I remember when my family was assassinated. I remember whose kingdom the killers came from. I—It seems kind of bullshit that they are acting like the only one in the wrong is you. Like this war was entirely on _you_.”

“My final campaign was pure destruction, Scorpia.” Hordak sat in one of the large chairs. “You weren’t part of it. You were—” He closed his mouth and glanced at Entrapta, who was studying one of the magic lanterns on the wall. He cleared his throat against the sudden ball of a strange emotion, and said, “You were no longer part of the Horde.”

Scorpia took a step back and said, “We should probably go. Hey, Entrapta?”

“Huh?” she said from where she was scanning the lantern. Hordak couldn’t help but smile. She held up a hand of hair and said, “Just a couple seconds. I’m taking another reading. This place has some very odd thaumatological fields. It’s almost like the whole palace is wired with magic instead of electricity—which is just fascinating, but also has to have some sort of conduit structure coming from the Moonstone. I’ve noticed it only seems to be here in the palace, though. Out in the surrounding city, people still use oil lamps. I wonder why they haven’t extended the parameters of their grid.”

“Perhaps that is a question for Queen Glimmer,” Hordak said as she came down from the wall, tucking away her datapad into the oversized pocket of her coveralls. She lifted herself up to his height and cupped his face in her gloved hands. She pressed her forehead to his, and he took a deep breath and said, “I will still be here when you are finished with your meeting, and I have no doubt you’ll find a way past the guards regardless what they tell you.”

She smiled and said, “You know me well.”

Hordak tipped her chin up and gave her a soft kiss on the lips, a simple action that made him feel warm throughout his body. A warmth that seemed to spread into Entrapta by the way her cheeks became rose dusted. Entrapta released him, and gracefully moved towards the door, her feet above the floor as she moved through the guards.

“I’ll be there in a moment,” Scorpia said before she turned to Hordak. There was a lot that she wanted to say to him. They’d known each other for so long. By _law_ , he was family. By her own definition, a friend. Scorpions were supposed to be loyal, and Scorpia always tried to be. Always. But she hadn’t been loyal to him. Not when it came to Catra. Not when it came to Entrapta. And while she and Entrapta had made amends, that didn’t change the fact that she helped cause Hordak a lot of pain. She wanted to tell him how much she wished that none of this had happened.

“Life is very complicated, Scorpia,” Hordak said after her silence stretched and her eyes began to water. He knew why she was standing here with him. He didn’t need an explanation. “In what feels like another lifetime, I promised your grandfather I would always take care of you. I changed the definition of that promise many times until it was unrecognizable as what it was intended. You were meant to be a queen when you came of age—not when _I_ thought you to be ready. King Scorpio would be very disappointed in me. I have not been loyal. I don’t think I truly understood the concept of it outside of Prime until my false god was purged from my system.”

“But it’s all my fault,” Scorpia said as tears started to fall down her face. She clumsily tried to wipe them away with a pincher. “If I would have told you, I know you would have done the right thing. With the portal. With the sword. You wouldn’t have opened the portal. Entrapta wouldn’t have been on Beast Island. Everything—”

Hordak calmly put his hand on her shoulder spikes, easily finding the place where nothing would poke as he had calmed her this way many times in the past, since she was very small. Her near sobs started to slow as Scorpia started to breathe slower.

He said in a firm but gentle voice, “I do not see it that way. I see that both you and I listened to the wrong person. And we are very fortunate that the person hurt most because of it is kind enough to grace us with her presence.”

“Entrapta is pretty amazing,” Scorpia said with a sniffle. She cleared her throat and said, “I’m still sorry.”

“That feeling, I find, does not go away based on the forgiveness of others,” Hordak said with a note of sympathy. Then using the sleeve of his robe, he wiped away the dampness from her face and said, “Now, go dear child. You’ve important business to attend to as Princess of the Crimson Kingdom.”

Scorpia gave a half smile then left the room. Hordak sighed and turned to the bed and the mountain of pillows, wishing he had any idea how he was going to survive the boredom of being inside a room this large with absolutely nothing to do but sleep.

* * *

As it turns out, sleep was an _excellent_ way to pass the time until the glowing eyes of Entrapta’s bug mask appeared on the balcony outside the “prison cell.” Hordak got up from the bed, leaving his robe behind, and walked bare chested to where Entrapta dangled upside down by her hair. She flipped up her mask as he approached.

“It is still so strange to see you so muscular,” Entrapta said as she pulled off her gloves and reached for him. “I’m glad the patterns are still on your skin, though. I would have missed those.”

Hordak tilted his head, his green eyes glowing brighter in the dark. His teeth shone as he said, “It does indeed make me easy to pick out of the crowd of clones.”

“Especially half naked,” she pointed out as she planted her hands on his shoulders and leaned in for an upside down kiss. She completely missed his lips and ended up pressing against his chin, which made them both laugh before he reached up and grabbed her around the waist. She fell into his arms and Hordak smiled at the feel of the true weight of her in his arms. Before it was always his exoskeleton holding her up, but to do it on his own for once was quite nice.

“I fully intend to enjoy my body for as long as it is in good condition,” Hordak said as he brought her inside his luxury cell. The guards were still posted out in the hall and there was a very thick magical barrier on the balcony, but Entrapta was quite good at sliding through those. He was very glad of that.

Entrapta giggled and curled her hair around his shoulders and said, “What exactly do you intend to do to enjoy your body?”

He chuckled as he tossed her down onto the bed and said, “Perhaps I will go for a swim.”

She giggled again. “A swim?”

“Or climb a mountain,” he said as he crawled over top of her, his body moving in such a way to come into contact with her as much as possible.

“There are pretty mountains near Dryl,” Entrapta said as she reached up to run her fingers through his silky white hair. “Are you allergic to any dyes?”

“No,” Hordak said with a smirk before leaning down to kiss her neck. He hummed a note and said, “Either the Bright Moon vents smell of berries, or you’ve had a bit of wine with your meeting.”

“It was fizzy!” Entrapta said. Her hair started to swirl around his limbs as he began nibbling on her earlobe. “Something d’Asti. From… uh… from that place… where… where… Mermaid princess is from…”

“Salineas,” Hordak said on a breathy growl in her ear.

Entrapta let out a needy sound. “You shouldn’t be able to make that word sound sexy.”

“Your fascination with my voice is interesting, considering there’s approximately another twenty thousand on Etheria who have it right now,” Hordak said with his own chuckle.

“Oh, yours is different,” Entrapta said. And then, using her hair, she flipped their positions. With Hordak on his back, Entrapta was able to quickly shimmy out of her coveralls and then come to straddle his sternum. Her knees didn’t even touch the bed. She shook her head and said, “You’re so big, I think these pillows are going to be handy for a lot of things.”

“You’ve thought about this a lot, haven’t you?” Hordak said as he ran gentle claws up and down her thighs. His hand was big enough to reach all the way around her calves and she could barely reach his chest standing flat footed. He said, “Is it strange that your small size is what I find most intriguing?”

“Not unless you think it’s strange that I’m into you for similar if opposite reasons—plus the whole alien space bat cyborg thing,” Entrapta said without a hint a shame.

“I shall have you on top, then,” Hordak said with a grin, watching as Entrapta became almost as pink as her lovely fuchsia eyes. “After that, we’ll see where the night takes us.”

Entrapta leaned down to kiss him, but paused before reaching his lips to ask, “Don’t you want to know what was decided at the meeting?”

“I’d rather enjoy tonight,” Hordak said. Then he pulled her mouth to his, and neither thought about much after that.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments! I'm happy people like it so far. I hope that I don't disappoint. This is such a different fandom that what I've written for in the past, and I'm always a tad scared entering a new fandom anyway. So yay!

The members of the Princess Alliance sat at a long table in the throne room of Bright Moon, with Queen Glimmer at the center. She was flanked by Adora to her right followed by Perfuma, Netossa, and Spinnerella. Mermista sat to her left with Frosta beside her. There were two empty seats reserved for Scorpia and Entrapta. Scorpia seemed to be late to the meeting. Hordak frowned. It was unlike Scorpia to be late to such things. While she may act like an airhead at times, he knew her to be always on task with her duties. It was why he put her in command of the entire fleet for a time. He intended it to be a way to scare her back to the Fright Zone, and she ended up being in love with the ocean.

Entrapta stood with Hordak below the dais.

If he was reading the expression on Queen Glimmer’s face correctly—and Hordak had learned to read his opponents very well—she was exceedingly angry. Adora was clean and orderly, yet it was clear that she had not slept well the night before. Mermista reminded him of her father, her expression _almost_ the perfect type of calculated cool to hide her seething hatred of him. The young Frosta looked bored and annoyed. Perfuma looked the most neutral, though there was always something about her that convinced him that she could shred him if given the opportunity. He wished Scorpia was among them. He was glad that Entrapta was beside him.

Despite their exceedingly wonderful night, the morning had been stressful for her. Hordak woke at dawn to the sound of soft sobs. He tightened his arms around Entrapta, adjusting his position to bring himself to curl around her in their nest of pillows and silk. Her hair moved in agitated waves like a sea at the mercy of a storm. There was a lot on the horizon, and Hordak knew better than to tell her that there was nothing to worry about. He knew telling her to go back to Dryl and leave him to his fate was a waste of time; he’d known that since he found the crystal on the Velvet Glove.

So he held her and waited for her to emerge from her storm, gently stroking his claws through her lavender hair, smoothing out a few places here and there. How he ever managed to gain the love of such a brilliant woman was unimaginable and unplanned—and perhaps the most vile thing he ever did, even if unintentional. Hordak wished more than anything that he was not the cause of this, that she would never again be hurt because of him.

As her tears subsided, Entrapta relaxed against his chest. She took a few deep breaths and told him about the meeting. From the way she cried, he half expected an executioner to storm through the door at any moment. Instead, it seemed that there was a consensus that the trial would be short since Hordak already accepted his fate. With the advice of Adora and the grudging acceptance of the rest of the Alliance, Hordak was to be sentenced to restoring the Alliance territories under guard.

“Adora told them you wouldn’t try to escape,” Entrapta said as she rose up on her elbows to meet his eyes. “She said you had no desire to fight or run from justice, and even if they left you free you would do the right thing. So why bother keeping you locked up?”

“I will fix what I have broken to what measure that I can, for as long as I can, until I have restored Etheria completely—but that is not something anyone believes because of my history.” Hordak said this to Entrapta in a soft, calm whisper. It was meant to soothe, though he knew the words did not quite do the job. “Entrapta, my love, I want more than anything to stay beside you forever. We found a way back to each other through the impossibility of Prime. We will not be separated here.”

In front of the Alliance, Hordak spoke loud and clearly, his tone meant to convey both sincerity and a humble dedication to the promise as he said, “I will fix what I have broken to what measure that I can, for as long as I can, until I have restored Etheria completely. It is up to your majesties how that will be done.”

Hordak bowed low, then stood straight before them.

“You expect us to believe you’ve changed so suddenly?” Queen Glimmer said in a voice that barely hid her anger.

Hordak answered flatly, “No.”

His simple answer seemed to fluster the queen, and she snapped, “Of course we don’t! There’s already been talk about Horde activities inside the Fright Zone. There was contact three days ago from one of your former commanders. There’s _no way_ I would let you walk free.”

That was news to Hordak. Considering he’d been off of Etheria for the better part of a year, he had no idea what had happened with his people back home. And Etheria _was_ his home, he realized. He’d been there for _thirty_ years; he’d only existed outside of an incubator for thirty-six. It was his home, where he had friends and a history, and a country that he led for the last two decades as its head of the military.

Instantly, he thought of the population of the city surrounding the Fright Zone, the urban areas beyond the walls, the villages that dot the trade routes, the coastal holdings, the _numerous_ things that were likely up in the air right now thanks to Prime and the cataclysm caused by the Heart of Etheria that left the ground cracked the world over. Hordak wondered if Scorpia knew about activities in the Fright Zone— _surely they would keep her informed?_ He went over in his mind the regional stockpiles— _did someone keep those going after he was taken? Did the chain of command work like it was supposed to? Did the city have to evacuate? How many casualties? Who made contact?_

Hordak’s jaw clenched.

“Regardless, it seems that the consensus is that you would best serve Etheria through restoration,” Queen Glimmer said in a forced level tone. “Therefore, an Alliance guard will be formed that will have the job of escorting you wherever you go. It will be made up of elite fighters from each of our lands. It will answer to the Alliance, and you will receive orders from us.”

Hordak nodded, though he still wondered about the Horde lands. 

“Do you have any questions?” Adora asked somewhat awkwardly. Having filtered an evil essence out of a person’s soul and then sitting in judgement of that person was strange—even if he was highly disliked by everyone in the Alliance.

“When do I begin?” Hordak asked.

“You will have your first orders as soon as we reach a consensus on what they will be,” Glimmer answered. “There is also need to form the guard for you, because there is no way you will be allowed to walk free, even if She-Ra claims you would do no harm.”

Hordak nodded, then said, “I will do my duty to restore Etheria, your majesties.”

Queen Glimmer huffed, then said, “Guards, take the prisoner back to his cell.”

* * *

Back in the prison-cell-room, Hordak walked out to the balcony where Entrapta was already waiting. She was not allowed into the room by the guards again, but this time she slipped in through the vents. Outside, everything was overgrown to the point of feeling like a jungle. He had the oddest desire to take off his boots and walk in the magically grown grass and wiggle his toes and feel the blades against the sensitive skin between the thick pads of his forefoot and heel. Most of the last few days, he’d found himself giving into many foolish ideas—or at least things that he would have violently rejected as foolish before. Now, he simply chose to give in and feel the rush of enjoyment at it.

Entrapta didn’t even ask why he suddenly leaned against the wall and shucked off his boots, she instead asked, “How do you feel after, you know, everything?”

“Oddly relieved,” he said as he sank his feet into the grass. He smiled at the sensation, finding it even better than he had imagined. He walked to Entrapta and reached toward her, waiting for her to take his hand. She did, and his smile grew. “I may be a prisoner, but I am still free of Prime. I am free to be Hordak without expectation of perfection.”

“I’m glad you finally believe me,” Entrapta said with a sly look.

“Believe what?” Hordak asked as he twitched his toes and met her eyes.

“That imperfection is beautiful,” she said as she rose up towards him. He met her halfway in a soft kiss. “But there was something in there that bothered you. I could see your whole demeanor change when they talked about people in the Fright Zone.”

He nodded and looked around for somewhere to sit. Upon seeing nothing, he simply sat down in the grass and Entrapta lowered herself down to straddle his lap. He leaned back against one arm and stroked her hair with the other, calming himself as he said, “I am worried about the people there. I—” He sighed. “I went off the deep end, as they say, when—When I—”

“When you thought I’d left you for the princesses?” Entrapta said.

“Yes,” Hordak gritted out. “I stopped holding the proper meetings and doing what I should as a leader. Completely. To be honest, I’d been slipping ever since Shadow Weaver started her scheming—but that’s not an excuse.” He sighed again. “The point is, there were nearly a million people living in and around the Fright Zone. The population of the Horde controlled territory is massive. And I have heard absolutely nothing about casualties or what kind of devastation happened there during the invasion.” He shook his head and said, “I know that asking such questions of them would be a bad move. But the people there—they are _people_. Just like any other Etherian.”

Entrapta cupped his chin with her hand. “I’ll look into it for you. I’m sure I can find out whatever their intelligence people know. If they won’t tell me outright, I’ll crack into it to find out. I mean, I managed to break down the firewall of an Intergalactic overlord. I think I can handle Queen Twinkle’s janky setup.”

“I do not want you to get in any trouble because of my curiosity,” Hordak said in a firm tone. “Your lands rely on you making good choices with your allegiances.”

“Yeah, well my entire castle—at least last I checked—was the base of operations in the Dryl Mountains for the Horde,” Entrapta said with a giggle. “And frankly, the mining guild has never been so happy. The Horde actually pays on time and with valuable currency, which seems to be a thing they like. I have the feeling I’ve been completely usurped by now if the Horde abandoned the post. Otherwise, they were pretty content with me being side-kick to the warlord of the Horde.”

“I really enjoyed turning Crypto Castle into my northern retreat,” Hordak said in a grumble. “I feel awful about it now, considering you weren’t actually my enemy and were in fact suffering on an island of monsters.”

Entrapta’s eyes sparkled. “I’d love to know what it looks like if you turned it into your _retreat._ ”

“I slept in your bed,” Hordak said with a smirk. “I may have shredded a couple pillows.”

She gasped. “You did _not_.”

“I did.” He grasped one of the twists of her hair and brought it to his nasal opening and inhaled deeply. “It smelled of you, despite how long you’d been gone.”

“Did you think about me?” Entrapta asked with a sly look.

Hordak huffed. “It was your bed and soaked in your scent. How could I not?”

She kissed him, and Hordak wanted to thank the Universe and all its many coincidences and mercies that he could end up in that moment.

Even if it was interrupted by Scorpia and Adora a few seconds later. Especially when Hordak saw who was sitting atop Scorpia’s pincher.

Hordak had enough time to take a breath and say, “Imp!” before the little creature soared across the distance to slam into his chest, chittering wildly as he wrapped his little arms around Hordak’s neck and Hordak pressed his hand against the little failed clone’s back as tears started to pour from his eyes. Imp rubbed his face against Hordak’s, his tail curling up around him as the former warlord whispered, “I thought you were gone! I thought I’d lost you forever! I’m so glad you’re here! Where have you been? I didn’t forget you either! I love you too, you little cretin!”

Entrapta hugged them both, too, and Hordak accepted the handkerchief she handed over to clean his face as Imp chittered happily at both of them. Then, just to show he was still Imp, he looked at Hordak and said in Hordak’s voice, _“You are late, fool!”_

“I am sorry, my friend,” Hordak said as he smoothed down Imp’s ruffled hair. “I was taken away and could not get back. Luckily, Entrapta saved me.”

Imp clung to Hordak, but he reached toward Entrapta and said in Hordak’s voice, _“Entrapta!”_

She let his little hand wrap around her fingers, and she said, “Oh, I’ve missed you too, little buddy! And as soon as I convince everyone that she’s not going to hurt anyone, we’ll get Emily up here to play with you and then the _whole family_ will be back together!”

Hordak pulled her to him and kissed her softly, then as maybe a first in the little clone’s life, he kissed Imp’s forehead. Imp squeaked and looked up at him, then nuzzled up under his chin and purred. The sensations inside Hordak made him wonder if he was about to pass out. He felt light and happy, but dizzy and his hearts were pounding erratically. It was so erratically wonderful.

Once he’d pulled himself together, Hordak stood and went to Scorpia who was a little misty eyed herself, and asked, “Where did you find him?”

“A couple of senior cadets found him,” Scorpia said. “They came all the way here with him, thinking they might find Entrapta or someone who could look after him. And well, they found me, and I figured you’d like to have your little friend back.”

“Thank you,” Hordak said as Imp again jumped up into his arms. He had the feeling Imp would not be more than an inch from him for many days, and that was not a problem to him in the slightest. He cradled him in the crook of his arm and the little clone looked as if he might fall asleep cocooned in his wings. He asked, “Did they say anything else about how the Fright Zone fared during the fighting?”

“Not really,” Scorpia said. “I think the three of them were just trying to survive after Prime’s Spire landed.”

Adora raised her hand and said, “They were cadets with me, sir—uh, I mean Hordak. I knew them well. They said they took good care of him, and I believe it.”

“I would like to find a way to thank them and compensate them,” he said as he looked down at the now sleeping Imp. “I have very little, but I am certain I can find a way.”

“Let me handle it,” Scorpia said with a smile. “I mean, I am a princess and I actually need to start building a staff. These three may be a good place to start. I’ve worked with them in the past, and Lonnie is very competent.”

Adora raised an eyebrow. “Lonnie, Kyle, and Rogelio? For what kind of staff positions?”

“I’m not sure, but I am certain I’ll find something that plays to their strengths,” Scorpia said. “My grandad’s philosophy was there’s always a place for someone, and every job is an important job. Right, Hordak?”

Hordak nodded. “His motto was the motto of the Horde. Though I’m not sure all of our commanders quite understood this the way they should have.”

Adora snorted a laugh. “Yeah, Shadow Weaver definitely missed that memo.” She held up her hand to keep him from saying anything on that subject, and said, “There’s another thing that I wanted to share with you because I feel like I’m the best to pass the news along—and maybe the only one who is willing to do so.” Adora looked to Entrapta. “Owing to the guards’ complete inability to keep you out anyway, you’re now allowed to come and go as you please to Hordak’s cell, Entrapta.”

Entrapta grinned and did a little spin. “Oh that’s lovely! I mean, it was very exciting to spider crawl down the outer wall, but I thoroughly appreciate that I would be extended the same courtesies as the rest of the Alliance since I’m still a part of it.”

Adora laughed awkwardly. “Well, the rest of the alliance had permission to ask questions. You’re the only one who is, you know, sleeping with him.”

“We don’t really sleep all that much, really,” Entrapta said.

Hordak’s ears folded back against his skull and he was certain his whole face was burning. He cleared his throat. “I am glad we will not be forcefully separated.”

“And on that note,” Adora said with her own face a touch pink, “I’m going to leave and start working out plans concerning the clones.” She paused a second and asked, “There’s not anything important I might need to know about them, maybe? Like that they secretly still want to take over the universe in Prime’s name?”

“No,” Hordak said, his head somewhat reeling from the sudden change of subject. He cleared his throat and spoke in an authoritative tone. “No, they no longer have Prime controlling them or commands to follow. They are very much like I was so long ago. They don’t have a voice in their mind telling them what they should do anymore. Their minds have gone silent for the first time ever. They… They don’t know what memories are truly theirs. They have no concept of time. Some of them may be only a few days out of their vitrine. A great deal of how they end up behaving will depend on how they are treated by your people. In many ways, I was a very blank slate when I arrived. Very confused and extremely alone.”

“There’s thousands of them; they’re not exactly alone,” Adora said.

“Adora, have you ever walked in the forest and it suddenly go very silent?” Hordak asked, his hand coming to gently stroke Imp’s hair as he slept.

Adora nodded, trying not to think about how cute Imp was when he had been a frightening thing to encounter in the Fright Zone.

“Was that a good feeling or bad?” he asked.

Adora frowned. “I think I see your point. I guess a good example is how well Wrong Ho—Uh…”

“I’ve been told about Wrong _Hordak_ ,” Hordak said with a near snort. “I don’t know how much of my advice you will take, but my recommendation would be to set up an introductory program that will allow them to learn about the planet and its people. Many of them will not even know your language without the hivemind interpreting for them.”

“Wrong Hordak spoke Etherian from the start, though?” Entrapta said. “Like from the moment he came out of his pod, he was shouting in Etherian very clearly. Between me and Swiftwind, he’s learned how to cuss.”

Hordak hummed a note. “Perhaps I’m wrong in that department. Etheria had not been discovered when I crashed into this place, and I am defective in comparison to my brothers.”

“The biggest problem we’ve had with the clones has been getting them to eat or drink,” Adora said somewhat worried.

Hordak grimaced. “I didn’t learn how to eat like an Etherian for a long time, but that was partially because of the damage to my body. Most have subsisted on aminos and protein slurries. I can provide a formula for the slurry that will mimic what Prime used until they become more comfortable with regular food.”

“I don’t remember anything about your early days. I think I was a baby,” Scorpia said.

“I was badly injured from the crash and in a coma in a hospital,” Hordak said. “The people of the Crimson Kingdom kept me alive, and when I woke I assumed I had succeeded in my mission to die in the name of Prime and had discovered some kind of afterlife.”

Adora nodded because she’d seen this part of his life inside his head. It was something that made her feel an exceeding amount of pity for him, though she would never say it out loud.

Entrapta said, “That’s not how you explained it to me before.”

He sighed. “I told you the story I told myself for many years, especially after Scorpio’s death. It was what made it easier for me to keep going.” He frowned and said, “I will tell you the full truth of my past now, Entrapta. All that you ever want to know, though there are still portions that remain very confusing. Hopefully, my brothers will find a more productive path than I did.”

“Well, uh,” Adora rubbed the back of her neck. “Thank you for your input on them. And uh, yeah. I’ll just—ya know. Go.”

“Thank you for coming by!” Entrapta shouted at her back.

Scorpia gestured towards the door and said, “I need to get moving, too. I’m going to talk with the cadets and see about putting together a group to go to the Fright Zone. I want to know what’s happening there. I’m worried about what’s happened to the city and the settlements.”

“It was something I thought about, too,” Hordak said. “Queen Glimmer mentioned there was contact from the Fright Zone from one of my former commanders. I believe you should speak to her about it.”

“If I—” Scorpia started. She chewed her bottom lip, then continued, “You know the daily operations better than anyone. Will you advise me on this? I want to make sure I do this right. I want to bring everyone together, you know?”

Hordak met her eyes and said, “My assistance will not be needed, Princess—and soon to be Queen—Scorpia. I have confidence that you have the skills to figure out what your people need and the wisdom to find the right people to help you.”

“You really think so?” Scorpia said.

“Of course,” Hordak said with a soft smile.

Scorpia smiled again and said, “I’ll let you know if I learn anything interesting. You three have fun.”

With her gone, Entrapta led him to a shaded spot beneath a large tree filled with a variety of fruits where they both settled down together with Imp resting on Hordak’s chest. She wrapped her hair around him and rested her head on his shoulder and his arm hooked around her waist. It wasn’t long before both Hordak and Entrapta joined Imp in a nap in the afternoon sun.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is all Scorpia and it got away from me?

“Is there always this much paperwork to being a princess?” Lonnie asked Scorpia as she dropped the document she finished reading. Scorpia looked at her as if she was going to answer, but Lonnie continued, “Just so you know, that entire memo was about clothing requisitions being on hold for the time being. They used a lot of words to say that they didn’t have any kind of ability to make clothing right now.”

Lonnie was given the unofficial official title of Communications Secretary. She didn’t like to be stuck in the tent all day, and preferred running around the camp delivering messages and gathering intel. Plus, after a change of clothes she seemed to blend right in with the throngs of people who surrounded Bright Moon. It made her uncomfortable when Scorpia pointed out this obvious advantage, but Rogelio agreed and she accepted the job.

Scorpia frowned. “Sounds like everything is on hold. There’s a meeting later about rationing food. I asked one of the Bright Moon guards about their processing facilities, but I guess Bright Moon doesn’t…do that?”

“I mean, the fresh fruit is nice,” Kyle said.

Rogelio grunted in agreement.

“But like, there’s thousands of people who need food distributed?” Lonnie said to them with a wave of her hands. “There’s been more and more people showing up here every day, and unless She-Ra plans to magic up some more super pear-apple-grape trees, they need a plan. Plus, this stuff can’t possibly stay good forever. It’s like these people never heard of stockpiling.”

“I know how we’d do it in the Horde,” Scorpia said on a sigh. “With all these fruit trees, we would have sent out the army to pick what we could and brought it back to the settlements. I think Dark Orchard has that preserves operation? I wonder if it’s still standing…”

The four of them were quiet for a bit, then Rogelio started talking and Lonnie listened, then said to Scorpia, “Rogelio wants to know if you heard anything else about the contact from the Horde.”

“Not really,” Scorpia said with a frown. Then she said to Kyle, “Make a note for me to ask about that at the meeting.”

“Done and done!” Kyle said with a chipper note to his voice. He was extra scrawny after surviving on the run, but Rogelio was doing his best to fatten all of them up with his cooking. The reptilian was an excellent cook, and had apparently come into his own in this department when out in the wilderness. Lunch for the day was fish stew combined with fresh herbs. The fish was caught by Rogelio the night before.

Other than cooking, Rogelio was also technically Scorpia’s security.

Kyle on the other hand, was Scorpia’s secretary. While he was never celebrated for his fighting ability, it was known among a few of the Force Captains that Kyle had beautiful penmanship. Back in the Fright Zone, Kyle often used this as a way to forge documents. Now, Scorpia put his talent to use for a very practical reason—she had trouble taking notes quickly with her pinchers and without her modified datapad.

“Do you think the Princesses would work with the Horde?” Lonnie asked with a raised eyebrow. “I mean, I get that we were fighting and all that, but it seems like there’s a lot that these folks just don’t know how to do. They keep talking like She-Ra’s going to fix it all, but I think they got it wrong. Adora’s fixed it already, but if they don’t take advantage of what happened—with all the other bullshit—they’re going to be in a real bind when the seasons change.”

Scorpia crossed her arms and sighed. “I almost wish I could talk to Hordak about this.”

“Why don’t you?” Lonnie asked. “I mean, you said he’s changed his ways and all that. He may know some hidden secrets of this kind of stuff.”

“Maybe he can share the gray ration bar recipe,” Kyle said with a chuckle.

Lonnie’s nose wrinkled. “Is it weird that I actually miss those damned things?”

“I miss them sometimes,” Scorpia said. “It was a guaranteed meal and filled your belly. Maybe it wouldn’t be the worst idea to suggest something like it at the meeting. There has to be some way to make that happen.”

“I’m sure some of these clones could be taught to do it,” Lonnie said with a shrug. “That Wrong Hordak guy—he seems to be really into experimental cooking.”

Rogelio huffed and went back to stirring his stew. There had been a small exchange of words—and hisses—when Rogelio was out gathering herbs and the jovial clone trailed after him asking questions of his purpose. Since the clone did not _speak_ Rogelio’s language and did not pick up on any of the reptilian’s gestures, it became increasingly frustrating for one of them and somehow very entertaining for Wrong Hordak.

Plus, Rogelio was generally freaked out by all of the Hordak look-a-likes. All of them were to a certain extent, but more because of their experience with the clones during the invasion rather than the resemblance to their old leader. Lonnie thought they all looked like really _young_ Hordaks, but Kyle wasn’t so sure. Hordak was certainly much more beat up than the rest of them, but he would never dare say that to his face, no matter how reformed Scorpia said he was.

When the time for the meeting arrived, Scorpia went to the meeting room with Kyle in tow to find Adora already waiting with Perfuma. Perfuma immediately dropped whatever conversation she was having with Adora and picked up her ornate tea pot as she said, “I’m so glad to see you, Scorpia! Would you like some herbal tea? It is my own special blend.”

Scorpia could feel her face warming and heart fluttering. “Y-Yes! That sounds good. Very good. Thank you, Perfuma.”

She poured into a large mug, a type that Scorpia favored over the small, fragile cups that were waiting for everyone else. It made her feel warm inside knowing that the flowery princess did something special, just for her.

“Who is your friend?” Perfuma asked.

“Oh!” Scorpia said as she turned to the side to give him space. “This is Kyle. He’s my, uh, secretary? I guess? I need him to take notes for me until I can get a new datapad.”

“We really can’t have extra people in these meetings,” Glimmer said as she entered the room.

Adora said, “I think we can make an exception in this case.”

“Isn’t he one of those Horde soldiers the guards found?” Mermista grumbled.

Kyle tried to straighten his posture even more. Scorpia said, “I also used to be one of those Horde soldiers. Kyle is a friend.”

“And I can vouch for him,” Adora said. “We grew up together.”

“Oh,” Glimmer said, her demeanor changing. “You’re welcome here, Kyle.”

Everyone took their seats. They were missing Netossa and Spinnerella, who both returned to their homeland. Scorpia was prepared to write off Entrapta as absent as well when she dropped in from the balcony with a chipper, “Good morning, everyone! Ooooh! Tiny muffins!”

Glimmer’s jaw tensed, then relaxed when everyone took their seats around the table and she called the meeting to order.

“The first thing that needs to be addressed is the food shortage here in Bright Moon,” Glimmer said as she opened the folder in front of her and started to distribute papers. “The fruit trees are plentiful, but it isn’t enough to keep the population fed for long. The majority of the farmlands to the south were destroyed by Prime’s assault, and while She-Ra’s magic reversed the salt-and-burn tactics of the Horde, there is still no grain to harvest.”

“There’s still time to plant and I can speed up the process,” Perfuma said brightly. “All we need is the seed to get it going.” She paused, seeing the blank expression of Glimmer looking back at her. “You do have seeds, right?”

“I have been informed that we have a very limited amount,” Glimmer answered tightly.

Scorpia asked, “Would it be possible to accelerate the small amount of seed through its lifecycle to produce enough seed to make a decent harvest in a reasonable amount of time?”

Perfuma smiled brightly. “Maybe! But I’ve never done anything like that, and the potential to fail is… Well, I don’t want to gamble with what may be the last of the grain supplies.”

“I’m certain I could maybe help it not be _that_ big of a gamble,” Adora said awkwardly. “Hopefully.”

“In the meantime, we will need to start rationing and regulating what people are gathering and taking from the sea so that it can be redistributed,” Glimmer said. She bit her lip and said, “I have no idea how to go about this, though. There’s never been shortages in Bright Moon.”

“I have a suggestion,” Scorpia said, and everyone looked at her. She cleared her throat and said, “Set up conveniently located supply depots throughout Bright Moon that are easily accessed by the population and by your military. Since there’s currently no war activities, use part of the army to go out and gather the edible fruits and roots and have them brought back to be disbursed to the depots. Additionally, I know that there’s plenty of fish in the bay right now. I’m certain that battle ships could be converted for fishing with relative ease. I used to lead the fleet for the Horde, and the military served both purposes often.”

Entrapta nodded. “I could easily design a system that would make it easy to optimize the daily ration for each individual and family. And we—”

“This is not the Horde,” Glimmer interrupted. “We’re not going to control the access to food through the military.”

Scorpia and Entrapta both were wide-eyed.

“I only suggested the military because they are the most well supplied right now,” Scorpia said. “And they are under your command, whereas the people are who you answer to. They’ve been through a lot. They may not be ready to be put to work just yet.”

“This is better looked after by the guilds,” Glimmer said confidently.

Entraptra snorted. “What guilds? The guilds are likely in shambles. And if they aren’t, how do you plan to contact them? The communications grid is still down and while I’m close to making a workaround, it isn’t finished. I mean, it would be a lot easier to do if I could have more equipment brought to my room—”

“ _Your_ room has plenty of equipment,” Glimmer emphasized with forced friendliness. “I am not giving you _and_ Hordak a lab _together_.”

“Yes, because that would get things done _too_ fast,” Entrapta said flatly.

Glimmer looked betrayed. “What?”

“Can we focus on the food thing a minute,” Mermista grumbled, waving her hand as if to dismiss the entire conversation. She was looking at Scorpia as she said, “You’re super right about the ships. It would be easy to make them into a fishing fleet, like, instantly. Most of them are setup for it anyway. I mean, war isn’t really our thing? So… yeah. We can do that. Good call.”

“Maybe we could get the clones involved?” Adora said with a shrug.

“No,” Glimmer said sternly. “No… I…” She shook her head. “No, we’ll get volunteers from the population. The people will want to work for us. We’ve done a lot for them.”

“People work better for a government that works well for them,” Scorpia said. 

Glimmer scoffed at that. “And you know so much about that, I’m sure.”

Scorpia didn’t pretend to not be offended. Her voice was stern as she said, “Yeah, I kind of do. Remember, the Horde is the _military_. It is one of several ruling bodies inside the territories all of _you_ call the ‘Evil Horde’ but it is not what we call it. There’s different lands there, just like here. There’s queens and kings and princesses—and yeah, lords—and they all operate under treaties to protect each other and the Horde is their joint military force.”

Mermista squinted at her. “I… I seriously never heard that before. I thought it was just, like, the Fright Zone.”

“I have the feeling there’s a lot you don’t know about the Horde,” Scorpia said, doing her best to not snap about it. “There’s seven kingdoms under the Treaty of Dark Edge. The Crimson Kingdom was the most powerful because of the runestone.”

Glimmer rolled her eyes and said, “We’re not here for a history lesson. We know _enough_ about the Horde.”

“I really don’t think you do,” Scorpia said in as neutral a voice as possible. “The people are just people. And most are likely facing the same problems the people are here. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about my friends back home. There’s a lot of people in the Fright Zone.”

“I think they can take care of themselves,” Glimmer responded.

Perfuma was the one who snapped back, “Shouldn’t we care about anyone in need? I mean, She-Ra saved _all_ Etheria, not just Bright Moon.”

Adora took a sip of her tea and said, “I’ve been curious about the Fright Zone, too. Especially since that message from Grizzlor came.”

“There was a message from Grizzlor?” Scorpia said almost jumping to her feet.

Adora’s eyes widened and she looked at Glimmer. “Didn’t you give her the message?”

Glimmer’s face reddened. “I… seem to have forgotten it.”

“What did it say? I’d like to know,” Scorpia said earnestly.

Glimmer said, “Our people are looking into the legitimacy of the communications before—"

“I didn’t make myself clear,” Scorpia cut her off. Everyone’s eyes were suddenly on the scorpioid as she stood up with her shoulders squared and eyes fixed on the queen. She did not raise her voice, but she was stern as she said, “I want to know what was in that message, _now._ ”

Glimmer’s calm façade did not break, but the others at the table seemed somewhat surprised by the sudden tension between the two. Glimmer was first to speak, and she flipped to a different file in her stack and said, “These were not meant to come to the attention of the Alliance until we were certain it was legitimate.”

She removed a paper and held it out to Scorpia who carefully accepted it with her pincher. It slipped, but Kyle caught it. Scorpia looked at him and said, “Read it.”

Kyle looked around the room, at the curious faces of all the princesses of the Alliance—all of whom he’d been trained to think of as evil from almost birth—and took a drink of his tea. Then he cleared his throat and said, “To leader of Rebellion Bright Moon, I, Commander Grizzlor, leader of the Horde, have been tasked by the Imperial Senate to escort Princess Scorpia to Crimson City to be Queen of Crimson Kingdom. I wait in Dryl. The lands of the Dark Edge Treaty offer—” Kyle went silent, his eyes going wide. He cleared his throat again, and said, “—offer a request to begin peace talks between our lands and give Princess Scorpia presumptive power to speak on behalf of Senate. Honor and Order, Commander Grizzlor.”

Scorpia took a deep, steeling breath and asked, “Why wasn’t this given to me when it arrived?”

“It didn’t sound legitimate,” Glimmer said.

“How would you know?” Scorpia snapped back. “Grizzlor was Hordak’s right hand man for years. I’ve sat in on so many meetings with the guy and read hundreds of his briefs, I know his writing style. This is how he sounds. It’s how he writes. This was definitely written by Grizz, and if he’s leading the Horde we should talk to him.”

Entrapta said, “If he’s really in Dryl, then I can likely set up communications a lot faster. Crypto Castle has a unique frequency and a lot of screens. I’ll go up to _my_ room and get that going for you. You don’t have your datapad, do you? I’ll get that fixed for you, too. Give me maybe two hours at max. I don’t want to miss Imp’s bath tonight.”

“I would prefer you didn’t do that, Scorpia,” Glimmer said, her voice laced with anger.

Mermista asked, “Why shouldn’t she talk to this Gristle guy? I mean, if the Horde is legit asking for peace, then lets do peace. It’s not like any of us want to fight. Besides, maybe they can give their old boss a hand fixing my damned Seagate.”

Glimmer glared at her. “You don’t think this could be a trap? We’ve been at war for a long time, and we _just_ ended a war with Prime. We’re not ready to fight the Horde again.”

“It doesn’t sound like that’s what they want,” Scorpia said waving a pincher for emphasis. “Whether you believe it or not, Hordak is done with the war. And if _that guy_ is sick of war, I’d say most are sick of it by now. I’ve lived my whole life fighting you. From the sound of it, I’m being given permission to start negotiations now. It would be nice if I wasn’t being treated with suspicion.”

“I’m not treating you with suspicion!” Glimmer shouted. She took a deep breath and in a calmer tone, said, “This has been a misunderstanding and miscommunication. I want to do what is right by my people and this alliance. I just thought it was best to investigate this first.”

Scorpia looked at Entrapta and said, “I’ll send Lonnie up to your lab and she can come find me when you’re finished with the communications setup. I think I’m done with this meeting for today.”

Without another word from anyone, Scorpia left the room with Kyle awkwardly restacking his papers and closing his folder before exiting behind her.

Perfuma stood up and said, “I think this meeting could have gone…better. To say the least. I need to go meditate now. Goodbye.”

Once out the door, Perfuma rushed to catch up with Scorpia, whose height and long strides had her halfway down the stairs towards the main hall by the time she caught up. The expression on Scorpia’s face was difficult to read. Perfuma’s brow knitted, then she followed beside Scorpia through the palace, not speaking but trying to at least give the opportunity for communication should Scorpia choose to offer it.

She’d noticed that the black garnet princess was prone to being quiet when in a difficult position—when she didn’t instinctively sting them, which Perfuma understood completely in hindsight and no longer feared. After all, living beings cannot control their instincts. Just as she found the need to brighten up the flowers along the walkway leading down to path that winds down to where the clones were gathered, when instinct tells someone they are in danger they will act in that way.

“There’s so many of them,” Perfuma said as she looked over the field dotted with white-clad bodies of Prime’s clones. They had no actual supplies of their own to set up camp, and so far most have stood in disorganized clusters, watching people pass with interest, but without much motion. “I’m going to help with their dietary needs. Entrapta gave me a list of the foods that Hordak prefers, so I assume they would have similar tastes. Do you think?”

Scorpia looked at her. “I don’t know, but I think it is great you care enough to try to help considering everything else. I’m surprised anyone gives a damn about them.”

“Of course!” Perfuma said, again reaching towards Scorpia but stopping short. “I… I value all living things. Even the, um… abandoned clones of a space alien warlord who wanted to destroy the planet.”

“You have a gentle heart,” Scorpia said, and she saw Kyle’s uncomfortable expression out of the corner of her eye. She waved him on, and he all but ran towards the tent. She returned her attention to Perfuma, who was looking at her with concern.

Perfuma finally stepped close enough and dared to put her hands atop Scorpia’s pinchers, and asked, “What is it?”

“I feel like it is only a matter of time before I say the wrong thing, and I’m back to being the monster again,” Scorpia answered. “That’s what I was called when I was little. I was… It doesn’t matter where I was. But the first time I ever met other princesses, I was called a monster, and it is why I have always hated being around princesses. It’s why it was easy for me to fight them for so long, because all I had to do was remember that most looked at people like me and saw a monster. It didn’t matter how well I spoke or dressed. All they saw was the pinchers and tail and they _knew_ I was their enemy. Even as a kid.”

Perfuma carefully put her hands on the space between Scorpia’s neck and the spikes on her shoulders, and said firmly, “You are _not_ a monster, Scorpia.”

Scorpia looked at her and the tension in her shoulders lessened but did not fully go away. She had to focus to relax her tail. Then she asked, “Did you know about the Horde contacting the Alliance?”

“I’d heard it mentioned at Hordak’s hearing,” Perfuma said. “That was it. I would have talked to you otherwise, you know that right?”

“Yes.” Scorpia said. “It’s just...”

“Tell me what is on your mind,” Perfuma said sternly.

Scorpia grit her teeth then said, “This war between our lands—between the Horde and the Alliance—it’s been going on for a long time. Since I can remember. I feel like this is the chance to end it, and Glimmer didn’t even tell me there was contact from the Horde and these are my people. I came here to help Entrapta. I stayed to fight Prime. But with Prime gone, I’m starting to wonder if…”

The expression on Perfuma’s face made Scorpia fall silent. She looked hurt. Still, her voice was steady when she said, “You wonder if we think of you as the enemy again?”

“Do you?” Scorpia asked, and she hoped that Perfuma understood that she was asking _her_ and not about the entire Alliance. Then she decided to not leave it up to misinterpretation, “Do you, Perfuma, think I’m the enemy?”

Perfuma slid her right hand up to Scorpia’s cheek and said, “No, I don’t think you’re my enemy or anyone’s enemy. I think you want to do what is right. I think you’ve always done that, even when following Hordak. I don’t think you are the kind who would fight for something you didn’t believe in.”

“I’m not,” Scorpia said. “I believed in my people and their cause.”

“Do you believe in us?” Perfuma asked.

Scorpia shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t had a lot of experience with you, and spent a lot of it under Prime’s control—and let me tell you, I understand Hordak and those clones a lot better than you can imagine.”

Perfuma’s thumb rubbed her cheek and she stayed silent.

“I just…” Scorpia swallowed hard. “I still feel it when I walk around here. I can feel people watching me. And I get it, but it makes me not want to be here.”

“They accepted Adora eventually,” Perfuma said. “They’ll accept you, too. Just give it time.”

Scorpia shook her head and took a step back, letting Perfuma’s hands fall away. “I’m not Adora, and it has nothing to do with She-Ra.”

“I don’t understand?” Perfuma said as Scorpia started to walk past.

“I know,” Scorpia said softly. “But I don’t feel like explaining right now."

Perfuma didn’t follow this time, and Scorpia tried to ignore the anger she felt anger at herself for being rude. She made a note to apologize when she was not as agitated by everything. She never used to feel this way. But the last year had changed her in many ways, and where she used to be anxious she was now angry more often than not. In the back of her mind, she worried she was a little too much like Hordak for her own good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so for reference? I kind of went with the idea that Scorpia stuck with "the Princesses didn't like me when I was a kid" thing she said in "Princess Prom" version of her outlook on things that she had in Season 1 rather than how she applied that exact same view to the Horde in season 4. It was something I noticed that got flip flopped. However, I also noticed that the Horde has a lot of animalistic humanoids in it, which makes it much more logical that Scorpia should be more comfortable among the people of the Horde than elsewhere. The rest of the stuff about the Horde I smooth made up.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning: This chapter contains a stressful medical situation. If you want an idea of what it entails, read the Author's Note at the end. 
> 
> Thanks for making it this far!

Having access to technology was not something Hordak was allowed, which he found to be an annoyance. However when he was approached with the assignment to build housing for displaced refugees, he was supplied with ample paper, pencils, and a drafting table to work with. He found it almost comical to have to use such rudimentary tools to draft out designs, but he still had a powerful computer in his cybernetic brain that he used to go over potential materials that could be salvaged from the spires left behind in the ground. The full schematics were in his mind, and he managed to draft them out with machine-like precision over the course of several days, noting out the amount of every material and in what dimensions it would be found, along with how to disassemble it and reassemble it into a livable space that would survive for a thousand years.

Imp perched on his shoulder with a small notebook and pencil of his own, drawing circles and twists, and occasionally running across the room to Entrapta—who was allowed to use technology—to see how she was faring in her attempt to create a signal that would turn all of Prime’s drone bots into communication relays. It was an idea given to her by Adora, who was very keen on making immediate worldwide communication possible and didn’t want to wait around for Bow and the maker’s guild to make it possible. Entrapta’s goal was to not need to do any actual maintenance to the bots or rewiring, but just hack into the signals and change their codes to accept signals from Etherian devices.

This was of course after spending half the day in meetings and working in her laboratory to create a singular signal to Dryl accessible by datapad for Scorpia. As usual, Entrapta was far more interested in the tech she needed to build and discoveries to be made, but he managed to parse out that Grizzlor had taken over the military. Hordak found that somewhat amusing, since the grumpy bastard always ignored any attempt at promotion. A part of him—a somewhat still mean part—hoped he was miserable just because of how long he put up with less capable people because the leonid refused to take up the mantle of second-in-command and was forced to be in charge.

If given the opportunity, Hordak fully intended to send him a letter that was an eloquent way of saying “ha ha, serves you right,” in no less than three pages. It would annoy him and in many ways, that would be its own pleasure.

“What are you smiling about over there,” Entrapta said as she slid away from her table.

“Thinking about how annoyed Grizzlor must be with his new position,” Hordak answered.

Entrapta squawked a laugh, throwing her head back as she did. “When they read that letter, all I could think about was that time he came into the lab and you two kept growling at each other when talking about Catra.”

“When was that?”

“I don’t know. You may have actually been conversing, but you both were so growly,” she said with a giggle. “Then you’d hiss at him to get out, and he’d flip you off.”

“Grizzlor used to be my bodyguard, which is why I put up with him,” Hordak said with a chuckle. “Apparently when King Scorpio assigned him to me, it was a big honor to his clan.”

Entrapta hummed. “Is that back when you were the King’s Favorite?”

“Yes,” Hordak answered, his eyes going to a squint as Entrapta started to inch toward him. She’d discovered images of him and King Scorpio on the day that Hordak was given the title of King’s Favorite, and according to her they looked like traditional Crimson Kingdom wedding photos—complete with how the two were dressed.

And she pointed out something that Hordak never really noticed: he had aged a lot over the last 30 years. Of course, that shouldn’t be a strange thing to acknowledge to most people, but most clones don’t live as long as Hordak. He had wrinkles near the soft skin at the corners of his eyes. There were deep lines around his mouth. The normal textures of his skull were more pronounced and accented by marks of age. Even in places where his defect had not changed his coloration, there were splotches of color variation that could be because of aging rather than vitiligo. Even after reconditioning, these effects of aging remained.

Entrapta, who sees all flaws as beauty, called him dignified.

Not that he would ever complain, especially when she leaned over to kiss his cheek and ask, “Ready for a break?”

“Yes, but I also wanted to see what you thought of this configuration,” he said as he gestured to the plans. “It is a housing pod of sorts. An interlocking system containing a place to sleep, eat, and handle hygiene needs. It is similar to what I used to rebuild Dark Harbor after a hurricane. I believe with one spire, five hundred of these units could be built, along with one hundred—” he flipped the page to show a larger building layout “—of these, which are for families or larger group units who wish to share spaces. I know some are very fond of that.”

Entrapta studied the layouts and said, “It seems like a good plan to me, especially since no one would need to cut down anything to do it. And if all of this would come from the Spires, I bet we could train people to do the deconstruction and reconstruction.”

“I think the clones would be best suited for it,” Hordak said. “And I think the act of tearing apart the Spires and building homes with it will help them to understand that they are not under _his_ rule much more clearly.”

“I think that is an excellent idea.” Entrapta put her arm around him as her hair started to curl around him and his chair.

Hordak said, “I converted parts of my ship into my sanctum. It was somewhat cathartic.”

“I thought I recognized the tech when I was on the Velvet Glove,” Entrapta said with a smile.

“Being on Etheria…” Hordak looked up to meet her gaze. He felt strangely vulnerable when he said, “It was the first time I really experienced linear time. Inside the hivemind, there is no sense of self or individual memory. It was strange to be alone, but being reconnected to it was… chaotic.”

Entrapta said, “Have you considered documenting what you experienced? It may help what happened seem less chaotic.”

Hordak tensed as he said, “I fear clarity for some things. I don’t want to remember Prime’s occupation of my body. I—” He sighed and looked at her. “I know that I harmed you.”

“Prime harmed me,” Entrapta said, though her eyes looked down at his chin. “He didn’t even sound like you do when he talked with your body. The cadence of his speech was different. And you would never grab my hair the way he did. You know I don’t like it when people grab my hair.” She met his eyes again, something he knew took effort even on a regular day, and said, “I don’t ever see him when I look at you. I only see Hordak. _My_ Hordak.”

Hordak glanced down at his arms, which were neatly wrapped in her coils of hair, and then said to Entrapta, “I would like to hold you now, if you would allow it.”

“I would like that,” Entrapta said as her hair released him, and she practically collapsed into his arms. She nuzzled her face into his neck, and Hordak couldn’t help the smile at the feel of her lips against the soft skin behind his ear. Her breath _tickled_ his neck, and Hordak’s ears flickered from the stimulation and effort to suppress the impulse to giggle.

She whispered, “I love making your ears wiggle.”

He looked down at her with what Hordak knew was not nearly as scathing of an expression as he wanted. His ears were still twitching too much because her fingers had joined the party. He said, “You are enjoying this far too much.”

“Just collecting data,” she sing-songed.

“Data collection is very important to any…” Hordak started, but found that he couldn’t remember where he was going with that sentence. Nothing cut him off. Entrapta was looking at him as if waiting for more, but he simply had no memory of what he intended to say. In fact, he couldn’t even remember what he was saying in the first place. Why were they sitting like this? Why…

Entrapta giggled. “I love it when I leave you speechless.”

He wanted to correct her. He was not speechless. There was something wrong, but he wasn’t able to say it. Hordak was having trouble expressing anything other than slack-jawed confusion.

Somewhere in the back of his cerebral processing unit, an error message appeared.

Then with a rush, everything seemed to come back online, and Hordak shook his head and said, “Yes, I think you did leave me speechless.”

Entrapta studied him a moment, then said, “Did it make you feel better?”

His brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“Using your ship to build your _sanctum_ ,” she asked with an emphasis and tone of voice that she only seemed to use with that word or attempting to lure him or adequately advanced robotics into bed.

At least Hordak could remember what he had been talking about. “In some ways, yes. The familiarity was comforting, and it was work tools used easier I—” Hordak paused and reviewed the words that he just said. Then he said, “It was easier to work with tools I was used to.”

“You sound tired,” Entrapta said, studying him again.

“I…” Hordak paused as another error message appeared in a different part of his cerebral processor. His brow tensed. “I am experiencing some kind of errors in my cybernetics. Perhaps I am tired and have not realized it.”

“When was the last time you ate something?” Entrapta asked.

“Am I not the one who normally asks such questions?” Hordak groused.

She raised an eyebrow and waited.

“Perhaps twelve hours? I was focused on my schematics,” Hordak said as he started to stroke her hair gently. “I forget that my body demands more sustenance now than before.”

Entrapta giggled at that. “I’ll tell the guards to send up some tiny food. Maybe something to drink?”

“Yes, that would likely be good,” Hordak said reached down to scratch the back of Imp’s head while Entrapta went to the door to place their order. The guards, with their polished silver armor and moon-shaped halberds didn’t even appear annoyed by her requests. While Hordak felt positive he no longer wanted to fight in any wars, he wasn’t sure he could handle seeing anyone mistreat Entrapta without getting involved.

With the order placed, Entrapta came back and sat in a chair of her hair. “I bet if we tell Adora about your ideas for the Spires and the clones, she’ll make it happen. Everyone will feel more comfortable if it comes from her.”

“I appreciate that she wishes to do well for all of Etheria, even my wayward brothers,” Hordak said as an odd pain shot through his head and another error message appeared. He growled and pinched the space between his eyes. “You are far better at politics than anyone gives you credit for.”

“What’s wrong?” Entrapta asked.

Hordak laughed softly and said, “I am fine. Just…”

There was something else Hordak wanted to say. Some clever quip that was on the tip of his bifurcated tongue, but as his mouth opened, he found that the words just disappeared from his head and he watched as Entrapta’s expression changed. He thought of something else he should say, some observation about the way her eyes look when she is thinking hard about something, but then Imp appeared in front of him. Imp looked like he was shrieking at him, but Hordak couldn’t hear him shriek.

Hordak couldn’t hear anything, really. That thought should have caused him to panic, but he found that he felt nothing other than a strange numbness that reverberated through his body, making his ear fizz with sound that he couldn’t place. All the while, all he could think about was how strange everything smelled, as if someone had opened up a bottle of disinfectant nearby. It was so very bright. And the sound was getting stranger, like the crackling of flame and shapes were moving in directions that didn’t look like anything he recognized.

Voices started to fill his ears, but they didn’t make sense. He could hear _his_ voice. Or at least a voice that was like his. And he was fairly sure he could hear Entrapta, though she was talking exceptionally fast. The room was brighter than normal and it made his eyes hurt. It took Hordak a moment to realize that he was on the floor.

Then… Everything became very foreign to him. As if he’d never seen that room before. As if those faces were the faces of strangers. The woman with the lavender hair with the high voice was trying to force bird people away from him. Or at least they appeared to be bird people. Though… they seemed somewhat metallic. Was that common? He was not sure. They were all shouting at each other, the lavender haired woman trying to get between the bird-people and him, but the language they spoke was gibberish.

One of the bird-people appeared from his blind side, and instinctively he swung an arm to shove them back. It was an awkward move as if his body did not want to operate under his control. It was such a weak motion that it was deflected by the bird-person with minimal force, and he was shoved down onto his back and held there.

“No! Stop!” the woman with the lavender hair shouted. It was the first words he understood.

“He just tried to hit me!” the bird-person—no. The guard said.

Entrapta. _Entrapta_ shouted back, “Can’t you see! He doesn’t know what’s happening!”

Ignoring the shouting, he said, the word that seemed to be his saving grace and gasped out, “Entrapta.”

She immediately dropped down to his side from where she appeared to be holding back two of the guards with her hair, and carefully held his head in her hands. “Yeah, it’s me. Entrapta. You… You had some kind of seizure. Can you—” Her voice broke as she asked, “Can you tell me your name?”

“My name?” he said on a gasp. For the briefest of moments, he could not recall what he would do with a name even if he had one. Then he had a memory of standing with his hand wrapped around Horde Prime’s neck and declaring it to his false god. He almost shouted, “I am Hordak!”

Tears suddenly flooded out of her eyes and she cupped his cheeks and said, “Thank goodness! I thought you were gone again.”

She was sobbing.

Hordak didn’t understand. Nothing felt clear. He was awake, but it was all… confusing.

“Help me...” He took a deep breath and his eyes fell closed. “Help me sit up, please.”

“You shouldn’t move,” one of the guards said in a stern tone. “You’ve sustained injuries.”

“I am fine!” Hordak growled, and it would not register with him at all how much he sounded like the Lord of the Horde until later.

Entrapta looked at him with worry in her eyes, but then said to the guards in a tone that Hordak would not hesitate to admit was nearly awe inspiring, “Get out! Get out _now_!”

“We will inform the queen of this,” one guard said.

Entrapta slammed the door on them, and immediately returned to Hordak’s side. Using her hair, Entrapta helped him up to a sitting position and started placing pillows around him to keep him in place.

“Entrapta…” Her name felt good to say. It came naturally to his mind, even through all the fog. Hordak rolled his head to look at her, and asked, “What happened?”

She grabbed the blanket from the bed and spread it over Hordak, who just realized he was shaking all over. Entrapta wasn’t meeting his eyes, and he knew that this was a time that she likely would have preferred to cover her face. She said, “You were talking, and then you just started shaking. Your whole body…just… _shook._ Your eyes went _blank_ and then every muscle in your body tensed and you…” She looked at him and said, “Your eyes changed color, but not completely. They’re orange at the edge on your left eye.”

“My vision is not fully functional in my left eye,” Hordak noted. He also admitted, “My head throbs.”

“Do you want me to take you to the bed, or would you rather stay where you are for right now?” Entrapta asked.

“I don’t know,” Hordak answered, feeling completely and utterly lost. “This has never happened before.”

Entrapta’s hand carefully linked with his. “Never?”

He gave a short shake of his head against the pillow behind his neck. “My internal systems are all giving me error messages, like everything…” He stretched his jaw and growled. “My…face…it hurts.”

“You hit the ground almost face first,” Entrapta said. “I tried to catch you, but it happened so _sudden_. I—I know it may be strange to consider, but it looked a lot like a seizure.”

Hordak took a deep breath and tried to not be deeply troubled by this revelation. There was swelling inside his mouth. He could feel it developing against his exceedingly sharp incisors. The taste of blood lingered in his mouth. He was certain he’d sliced open his tongue at some point. He winced as another cascade of pain and errors went through his head, and said, “Perhaps the bed would be better.”

With Entrapta’s impossibly strong hair and sturdy frame , Hordak was lifted up to his feet, where he wobbled a little but found his balance and eventually was able to walk on his own to the bed where he almost collapsed onto the mostly pillow-less surface with an agonized sound. Everything ached as if he’d just tried to lift the entire building. He tried to focus on not feeling, tried to parse out the mixed messages going through his processors, but the throbbing in his head made it impossible. Thus, Hordak closed his eyes and tried to not think about anything for a while.

Entrapta’s hair lingered wrapped around his wrist and through his fingers as she moved around the room, closing the doors and giving Imp instructions to close the curtains in a soft voice. When she returned to the bedside, she hovered so as to not disturb his position, and said, “I have a cold compress. Do you think it would feel good on your face?”

Hordak made a noise of consent, and sighed at the feel of the chill against his overheated skin. He opened his left eye and still found his vision to be lacking. Carefully, because talking was painful, he said, “Your recorder. I need… Notes. Documentation.”

For a moment he worried she would argue, as she occasionally would when he would overwork himself to the point his body gave out. But there was something very different in her expression, but his mind was too hazy to pinpoint it.

Finally, Entrapta took the recorder out of her pocket with her hair and said, “Hordak Medical Log 1.” She held it towards him and in a softer tone said, “When you’re ready.”

“Your observations first,” Hordak said.

Entrapta took a deep breath and said, “At approximately 14:45, Hordak became unresponsive to verbal stimulus and appeared confused. This status lasted twenty seconds before subtle twitching started in his limbs, followed by violent shaking throughout his body that lasted another minute at which point his body became stiffened and Hordak appeared to stop breathing.” Her voice shook, and she paused a moment before continuing with, “This condition lasted a further two minutes. Hordak’s eyes and teeth lost all coloration in what seemed to be a cyclical flicker that I… _failed_ … to time. When his muscles again relaxed, he appeared to be unconscious, though breathing.”

Hordak opened his right eye to look at her, and could see that she was crying even though her voice was steady. He opened his hand and she placed hers in his, giving a soft squeeze.

“At 14:57, Hordak appeared to become responsive, though still confused to his whereabouts,” Entrapta continued after a moment, dashing tears away with her gloved hand. “He was unable to remember his name, who I am, who Imp was…”

A sob broke through her words, and Entrapta clicked off the recorder and covered her face as she cried.

“It… must have been… terrifying,” Hordak said slowly, his words somewhat slurred by his swelling tongue. He stroked the hair that held his hand, and he wished he could offer any other comfort, but he was also horrified by the idea that there was a lapse in his recall. The idea of forgetting her… He took a long deep breath to keep away the emotions that threatened him. This was not the time. Later.

Entrapta eventually cleared her throat and wiped her eyes, and again turned on the recorder to continue. “This condition passed and Hordak seemed to _wake up_ at 15:07.”

When Entrapta held the recorder to him, he said in a particularly gravelly voice, “I did not realize how long this episode lasted. For me, it seemed to pass in perhaps a few seconds. I felt a strange sense of disconnection. I couldn’t hear or understand what was being said around me. I had no sense of motion. That you say I ‘woke up’ seems applicable because it was very dreamlike.”

“What are you feeling now?” Entrapta prompted.

“My head is throbbing,” Hordak said with a wince. “My body feels very heavy. All my muscles are strained. The most troubling is a loss of vision in my left eye. There are large blank areas around the peripheral and two large black areas near the focal point. I must… _focus_ on my speech. My tongue feels swollen near the left molars as is the inside of my cheek.” He closed his eyes and forced his way past the pain and see what his cybernetics were reporting. “All organic damage is minimal. Blood loss is reported at 7.916 milliliters. There seems to have been an error in my organic cerebral material. Many errors. I have never observed these errors.”

That was a disturbing realization. Many times in his life as a defective clone, Hordak woke on the floor due to a black out. This was usually caused by minor failures of various organ systems mixed with the overall slow failure of his muscles. But this was different, he knew. He sensed it from the moment he woke. Entrapta recognized it, too. Before, he would work too hard, too long and it would precipitate into a blackout due to exhaustion. Sometimes he could prevent it through rest, though often the demands of the Horde did not allow him to rest. There was an Etherian saying concerning “no rest for the wicked” and Hordak wondered if it was aimed at him due to his work ethic.

But he wasn’t tired. His body—up until just now—seemed to be physically excellent. There were no error messages reported. He spent most of his time sitting in an ergonomically designed chair drawing plans for homes. The most physical exertion he did most days involved Entrapta, but that was nothing compared to his usual days at the Fright Zone.

“This is a sign of my defects manifesting in a new way,” Hordak said out loud. “The errors are new, but I believe this is a sign of them returning. I would like to download my vitals prior to this episode and throughout in the event this happens again.”

“I’ll get the cable made,” Entrapta said. “Is there anything else you’ve noticed?”

Hordak felt a chill settle in his chest, a tightness he knew had nothing to do with what just happened, and he said, “Turn off the recorder, please.”

Entrapta did, and she moved closer, studying his face. She could see how tensed he was by the stiffness in the lines of his face, like he was holding back a great tide. Back in the Fright Zone, such an expression would suggest he was full of anger and about to start clearing his worktable with a couple well-place violent swipes. His jaw was tensing in a slow rhythm, his breath focused and slow.

“I’m…” His voice cracked and he found that he needed to swallow down the emotions that were swelling in his throat. He breathed through it until it was settled enough that he could speak. Then, in a very low voice, so soft only Entrapta could possibly hear, Hordak said, “I am afraid.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what happens to Hordak here is literally based off of my own personal experience as someone who never ever had a seizure suddenly having a seizure (despite having other disabilities that caused blackouts and such). This is more or less the exact experience I've had several times when having a grand mal seizure from the perspective of the person having the seizure. It is not pleasant and is very frightening and painful. I did not have someone with me the first time, but I did the maybe 4th time? And thanks to them, I finally got a proper diagnosis instead of being told I had low blood pressure! So... yay? I was nice to Hordak and gave him Entrapta to look out for him. 
> 
> Anyway, I cope with life's excessive bullshit through forcing characters who are not me to do it too! YAY!


End file.
